How Edible Cinema Finally Allows You To Eat A MoviePosted on Monday April 28, 2014, 10:29 by Ali Plumb in Empire States

There are a few moviegoing “experiences” out there – some requiring you to dress up, others involving a jacuzzi – but I don’t think I’ll keep any of their literature in my memory drawer. Here’s a scan of my lovingly crumpled menu from Edible Cinema’s Trading Places screening from back in December 2013, which I bring up now because a new Edible Cinema event is coming up soon, and it’s important you know about it.

The premise is simple: each audience member sits in a seat with a tray of numbered footstuffs in front of them. A low light is kept on to see what’s what, and just beneath the screen itself there's a handy Edible Cinema assistant who raises the appropriate number on a piece of card when you’re required to eat (or drink) something. Otherwise, it’s a relatively normal screening of a relatively normal film – albeit one that features Jamie Lee Curtis in the nude and Dan Aykroyd on a bus with some fish in his beard.

What makes the event so special is a combination of the location – in Trading Places' case, the Electric Cinema in Notting Hill – and the quality and ingenuity of the food and drink on offer. Portobello Road’s finest film-watching venue is all spacious cowhide armchairs, polite table service and, at the very front, as-big-as-a-small-swimming-pool double beds.

And the grub? That’s something so peculiar you may want to skip the rest of my waffle and analyse the menu below for yourself. As an example, “HO HO HO” manages to be both delicious (salmon and noodles) and very weird (texture-wise, it's a little like munching on some fish caught in your very own fake Santa Claus beard) resulting in a chorus of unusual noises echoing around the room.

Feast your eyes on the details, and be sure to pay particular attention to “SHAVING FOAM”, which tasted like the most refreshing (and drinkable) mouthwash ever made, as well as “CIGAR?”, which was a chocolate stick like no other. And if turn up to the event and haven't haven't perused the menu first, every item on it – every culinary call-to-arms – becomes a genuine surprise. “Am I eating a fishy beard?” is a very strange thought to be thinking half way through a movie.

The next Edible Cinema will take place on Saturday May 3 and Sunday May 4 at both 3pm and 7pm at the home of BAFTA at 195 Piccadilly, London, where the screening will be Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet. Tickets are £37 per person, with seating available on a first-come, first-served basis. There will probably be no fishy beard dishes, so sorry about that.